I began collecting recipes when I was at school. Some of the recipes in my large collection have been in my family for generations, others were passed on by friends and chefs around the world. Many have been adapted over the years to make them lighter or update their presentation. I’ve served them to royalty, PMs and other VIPs and there have been no complaints. I hope you are inspired to make some of them.
During the recent school holidays number one son James headed off to Disney World with his wife Karen and two very excited boys aged seven and five. He’s the computer wizz behind Café Cat, making sure that subscribers get their weekly recipe.
When James & Co go away we look after Hershey, their bouncy chocolate labrador and when we go away they look after Danske, our ivory-coloured golden retriever. A reciprocal arrangement which works well. Hershey doesn’t have to be here long for the contents of our vacuum cleaner to change from cream coloured hairs to a perfect cappuccino mix of the two!
Hermits are spicy, slightly salty little cakes which originate in Canada. James is very fussy particular when it comes to cakes, but as I mixed them I thought they would be right up his alley, though he would prefer them without the nuts. Unfortunately they were all gone by the time he got back.
1½ cups plain flour
1½ cups self-raising wholemeal flour
1 egg
½ cup olive oil or melted butter
½ cup plain yoghurt
1/3 cup molasses or treacle
½ cup milk
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
¾ cup brown sugar
½ tsp each cinnamon, salt, ground cloves & nutmeg
2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup raisins or sultanas
½ cup walnuts or pecan nuts (optional) To finish:
icing sugar
Preheat oven to 180ºC. Grease a 20-22cm square cake pan or a small slice/slab tin and line with non-stick paper. A Lamington tin is perfect. Place all ingredients except fruit and nuts in food processor and mix well, stopping after a minute to scrape down the sides. Add fruit and nuts and process briefly, just to mix.
Scrape mixture into tin and smooth the top. Bake for about 20 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle. Don’t overcook – the cakes should be soft and chewy in the middle like chocolate brownies. How long they take will depend on the size of your tin. Cool then cut into squares or rectangles and dust with icing sugar.
Alistair Sawday’s French Bed and Breakfasts – or Chambres d’Hôtes as they’re called in French – was our bible during the four years we were posted to Paris. Our copy is old and starting to come apart, but we still use it when we return to France for a holiday. A fabulous way to get to know the country without spending a fortune on accommodation.
Over the years we’ve stayed in many picturesque villages – farmhouses as well as a few small chateaux – and enjoyed the company of a wide variety of hosts, both French and ex-patriot. Having dinner with your hosts, usually by pre-arrangement, is a very intimate experience and doesn’t suit everybody, but we love getting to get to know the locals.
Of all the places we stayed La Gaxottière sticks in my mind for two reasons. Firstly because we enjoyed our stay there so much and secondly because our hostess gave me a couple of great recipes.
Françoise Gaxotte is a gregarious lady of a certain age, as they say in French. She has never married and, since retiring as a pharmacist, has run a successful B & B in Compiègne in Picardy. We chose it for its proximity to Charles de Gaulle airport as we were flying out the following morning, but it turned out to be a little gem, worth going back to for no reason at all.
Tall, imposing and matronly, Madame wears her snow-white hair in a traditional bun. She greeted us warmly, showed us our room and explained that dinner would be at seven o’clock sharp.
We were the only guests that night and as we knocked on the door of the converted barn, which forms the main part of the house, we were greeted by an elderly gentleman. He had been playing chess with Madame in front of a roaring log fire and was just leaving. Madame offered us an aperitif from her extensive collection and shortly afterwards we sat down for dinner. We could have been close friends or relatives enjoying an intimate dinner party for three.
For the main course we had some delicious scallops. Madame Gaxotte explained the recipe and I made a mental note. As we ate breakfast in the kitchen next morning she was busy making Rabbit with Dijon Mustard for guests who were due to arrive that night. This time I had a pen and paper to hand! I haven’t made it as often as the scallops, but when I do I am reminded how delicious rabbit can be, when you have a good recipe.
There aren’t many places where you can enjoy a fabulous four course meal, including cheese, an aperitif and wine, for 20€ a head. After breakfast we paid the bill and headed off to the airport.
10-12 large scallops without roe
About 6 slices streaky bacon
2-3 French shallots finely chopped
1 Tbs butter
½ cup cream
Pepper To garnish:
Snipped chives
If scallops are frozen, thaw them in a little milk and water which will plump them up – a tip I learnt from Madame. Drain and dry thoroughly with paper towels.
Remove rind from bacon and cut each slice into two or three horizontal slices about as wide as the scallops are thick and long enough to go round the outside with a bit extra. Wrap a piece of bacon around each scallop and secure with a toothpick, pushing it right through and out the other side. Leave on paper towels so they continue to drain. It’s important for the scallops to be very dry and the pan very hot, so they brown nicely.
Heat butter in a frying pan large enough to hold the scallops in one layer and cook the shallots for a few minutes, gently, until soft and golden. Remove from pan. Add the scallops and cook for a couple of minutes each side, till lightly browned. Return shallots and continue to cook for about a minute, stirring and spooning the sauce over the scallops. Add cream and cook until slightly thickened, gently turning the scallops so they are well covered with the sauce. You may need to add a little extra cream.
Season with pepper (there’s probably enough salt from the bacon) and serve on a bed of mashed potatoes – nice and smooth with lots of butter and a little milk added – or steamed rice. Place potatoes or rice in a sausage shape down the middle of each serving plate, then arrange the scallops on top, in a line. Remove toothpicks, spoon over sauce and garnish with the chives.
Serve as a main course with mashed potatoes or steamed rice and a green salad, or steamed green vegetable such as snow peas, green beans or asparagus. Or as a starter in smaller portions. Served individually, on Chinese spoons, they make a great aperitif.
Serves 2 as a main course or 4 as a starter
Note: I use d’Orsogna Premium Rindless Streaky Bacon which comes in a packet from most Woolworths shops. If you can’t find it have a look at their website for a list of stockists.
This a perfect last minute dessert as it only takes 10 minutes to make and about an hour to set. The recipe came from Matthew’s bachelor survival cook book, so it goes back a long way. There’s actually no cheese in the recipe, but if you make it in a spring-form pan it looks like a cheesecake.
I often make it in half cup glasses as shown in the photo. Put them all in a round quiche dish or similar and cover with plastic wrap (or a shower cap which I find very useful in the kitchen!) and they will last several days in the fridge. Instead of the crunchy topping, top with a few fresh berries. Or both.
200g plain sweet biscuits (I used Ginger Nuts)
125g butter, melted
1 can condensed milk
Grated rind 4 large lemons
½ cup lemon juice
300ml cream, whipped
Fresh raspberries, blueberries or strawberries (optional)
Whiz biscuits in food processor until you have crumbs. Melt butter in a medium sized bowl in microwave. Add biscuit crumbs and mix well, then divide between about 16 half cup glasses or ramekins. Save about 4 Tbs of crumbs for the topping, unless you are going to decorate with just berries. Alternatively press crumbs over the base of a 20cm spring-form pan.
In a clean bowl, thoroughly mix condensed milk, lemon juice and rind, then fold in the whipped cream. Divide filling among the glasses or spread into spring-form pan. Refrigerate for at least an hour and serve decorated with the remaining crumbs or some berries, or both. If making in a spring-form pan it’s best to refrigerate for several hours or overnight so it cuts nicely.
Serves 16
Note: other versions of this no-bake cheesecake use 250g cream cheese instead of the cream. In this case mix the cream cheese (at room temp) with the condensed milk, lemon juice and rind in a food processor and omit the whipped cream.
Our Polish friend Peter was coming for dinner so I decided to make something for dessert which would remind him of his homeland. After searching online I came across Mazurek, a nutty cake, not quite as dense as shortbread, covered with chocolate icing and nuts.
There are as many recipes for Mazurek as I’ve had hot dinners, so having found a version for which I had the ingredients – essential when you don’t want to go shopping – I adjusted it slightly and came up with this.
Peter explained that Mazurek is traditionally served at Easter so my timing was perfect. He hadn’t tasted one for many years and was delighted to take home the leftovers.
Serve for afternoon tea or as dessert, with a dollop of cream. Scrumptious.
250g butter at room temperature
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1½ cups almond meal (see note below)
1 cup plain flour
pinch salt
¼ tsp almond essence
¼ cup cream or sour cream Chocolate Icing:
½ cup dark chocolate chips or chocolate squares
1 Tbs corn (glucose) syrup
2 Tbs cream
2 Tbs butter To decorate:
¼ cup flaked or slivered blanched almonds
Preheat oven to 200ºC. Grease a 9″ (22cm) square cake pan and line with non-stick baking paper. In a food processor or with electric beaters mix butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, salt and almond essence and mix well. Add flour and almond meal and mix well. Scrape into cake pan and spread out evenly. Bake for 20 mins or until light golden – don’t overcook or cake will be dry. Cool completely in tin.
Remove cake and place on a flat serving plate. Place chocolate, corn/glucose syrup, cream and butter in a small bowl over simmering water and when melted stir till smooth. Cool a little then spread icing over cake and decorate with almonds.
Serves about 16
Note: make your own almond meal by blitzing blanched or unblanched almonds in food processor until fine.
Variations: use hazelnuts, walnuts or pecans instead of almonds.
My friend Jurate who lives in the Sydney suburb of Haberfield gave me 3 green mangoes. Actually the tree is in her neighbour’s garden, but he’s happy for her to take the fruit that hangs on her side of the fence.
We’ve been to Thailand so many times, I’ve lost count. When travelling back to Australia from Europe we find a few days of relaxation, massage, great food and swimming is the perfect way to break the journey and get over some of the jet lag.
I used the mangoes to make one of our favourite Thai dishes, Green Mango Salad and it was delicious.
3 green mangoes, peeled and coarsely grated or cut into fine julienne
3 spring onions or 1 small red onion, finely sliced
½ cup fresh grated coconut or desiccated coconut
¼ cup Thai or ordinary basil, shredded
¼ cup coriander, coarsely chopped Dressing:
Juice of 2 limes
2-3 Tbs palm sugar, crushed, or brown sugar
1 Tbs Thai sweet chilli sauce
1 small red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
2 Tbs fish sauce To garnish:
Roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
About 20 cooked prawns, peeled
Mix salad ingredients in a bowl. Mix dressing and taste – it should have a nice balance of sweet, salty, sour and hot. Mix dressing with salad, then serve garnished with the peanuts and prawns.
Serves 4
Note: green mangoes are usually available in Asian shops. If liked you can bulk up this salad by adding 2-3 cups of beansprouts.
What the supermarkets here call pork spareribs are actually pork belly rashers, as they have no bones. I bought a packet and was planning to cook them with a sticky sauce. Then my Thai friend Pom gave me some plums, so I decided to throw them in towards the end of the cooking time. The result was delicious with the fruit providing just the right contrast to the richness of the meat.
8-10 pork belly rashers or spare ribs
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbs BBQ sauce, or HP sauce or Tomato Ketchup
2 Tbs oyster sauce or Sweet Chilli Sauce
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs honey or brown sugar or maple syrup
1 crushed clove garlic
2-3 tsp grated fresh ginger
About 8 plums
Preheat oven to 180°C. If liked remove rind from the pork. Leaving it on results in chewier pork, but I like it that way. Place pork in a baking pan and season on both sides. Bake for an hour to an hour and a half or until tender, turning them over about halfway through the cooking. Tip off the fat. Mix the three sauces with the honey/brown sugar or maple syrup, garlic and ginger and spread some over the pork. Add the plums, stoned and cut into quarters. Return pan to the oven for about 15 minutes then remove, turn the pork over and spread with remaining sauce. Continue to cook for a further 15 minutes or until nicely glazed and plums are cooked. Serve with steamed rice and steamed bok choy.
Serves 3-4
Variations: leave out the plums altogether if preferred, or substitute peaches or nectarines.
When I was growing up in the UK my mother used to cook smoked haddock in milk. I have never seen smoked haddock in Australia, but I often buy a couple of fillets of smoked cod and stick them in the freezer to whip out on a busy day.
I invented this dish many years ago and it has become a favourite mid-week dinner. All you need are tomatoes – which we have in the garden at the moment – and some cream. The recipe is easy to halve if you’re cooking for one.
2 fillets smoked cod or haddock (about 350g)
3-4 tomatoes
About 1/3 cup cream
Black pepper
Chopped fresh herbs to garnish
Preheat oven to 200ºC. Remove skin from fish, cut into bite size chunks and arrange in a small, shallow, oven-proof dish, lightly greased. If you have time, remove skin from tomatoes by pouring boiling water over them for a minute or so. This is optional – I don’t mind them with the skin left on. Cut tomatoes into chunks and sprinkle over the fish. Drizzle with cream and season with pepper. You probably won’t need salt as the fish is salty. Bake for 20-25 mins or until golden and bubbly. Garnish with some herbs and serve with steamed rice or mashed potatoes and a steamed green vegetable such as peas, snow peas, green beans or asparagus.
Israeli-born Yotam Ottolenghi trained at Le Cordon Bleu in London. He then worked at the Michelin starred restaurant The Capital and later in the pastry section of the Kensington Place restaurant. He went on to become head pastry chef at Baker and Spice in Chelsea, where he met his Palestinian life partner Sami Tamimi. In 2002 their first delicatessen opened in Notting Hill. They have since opened three more establishments, selling some of the best takeaway food in London. Together Yotam and Sami have also co-authored several cook books.
Their culinary style is bold and often influenced by Middle Eastern flavours. This scrumptious salad comes from their book Jerusalem and came highly recommended by my daughter Catherine. The pan fried pita croutons idea is one you can use in other salads. You could do them with or without the nuts and use walnuts, pecans, pine nuts or macadamias to ring the changes. You could also use halved raisins if you don’t have any dates.
1 Tbs white wine vinegar
½ medium red onion, thinly sliced
100g pitted dates, cut into 1cm pieces
30g unsalted butter
2 Tbs olive oil
2 small pitas, split in two horizontally then torn into 3-4cm pieces
75g whole almonds (not skinned), roughly chopped
2 tsp Sumac
½ tsp chilli flakes (I used dried crushed whole chillies)
150g baby spinach leaves, washed and dried
1-2 Tbs lemon juice
salt
Place vinegar, onion and dates in a small bowl, add a pinch of salt and mix well. Leave to marinate for 20 mins then drain off any remaining vinegar and discard.
Heat butter and half the oil in a medium frying pan. Add pita and almonds and cook, stirring all the time, for 4-6 mins over medium heat until golden. Watch carefully the nuts don’t burn. Remove from heat and mix in the sumac, chilli and ¼ tsp salt.
To serve, mix spinach leaves with the pita and almonds. Add the dates and red onion, the remaining Tbs of oil, lemon juice to taste and another pinch of salt. Taste for seasoning and serve immediately in one large salad bowl or on individual plates.
Serves 4-6 as a side salad or 2 as a main course
Note: Sumac is a Middle Eastern ground spice available in ethnic markets and gourmet grocers.
Woolworths was selling 400g Toblerones for half price so I bought a couple and put them in the pantry (trying to forget they were there) until I came up with inspiration for a new dessert.
By using good quality bought vanilla ice cream you can make this parfait in a jiffy. If you have time to make your own ice cream so much the better. While you could make this in an ordinary loaf shape, using a triangular tin looks snazzier, especially as Toblerones are that shape. You can buy them online.
If preferred, leave out the chocolate coating. This chocolate sauce recipe is an old family favourite. Great to have in the fridge to serve with ice cream or waffles, though one batch doesn’t last long if you have kids around, or even grown up kids!
2 litres good quality vanilla ice cream
1 x 400g Toblerone chocolate bar Chocolate Coating:
200g dark or milk chocolate
2 Tbs vegetable oil Chocolate Sauce: ½ cup sugar
½ cup water
4 Tbs cocoa
2 Tbs golden syrup
Large knob of butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
Remove ice cream from freezer and spoon into a large bowl. Leave to stand for a few minutes while you chop the Toblerone into small chunks. Not too long as you don’t want the ice cream to melt. Thoroughly mix Toblerone into ice cream. Line loaf tin (triangular or rectangular) with plastic wrap, leaving the excess hanging over the sides. Fill with ice cream mixture, pushing down and smoothing the top. Cover with the plastic wrap then freeze several hours or overnight.
Chocolate Coating: Remove parfait from freezer, tip out (you may need to hold a hot towel over the base to loosen it), peel off the plastic wrap and place on serving dish. Meanwhile melt chocolate in a bowl over simmering water and mix in the oil. Working quickly cover the parfait with melted chocolate. Put back in the freezer to set.
Chocolate Sauce: Choose a large pan because this sauce has a tendency to boil over. Place all ingredients, except butter and vanilla essence, in pan. Mix with a whisk to remove lumps, then boil for 5 minutes without stirring. Cool for 10 minutes. Stir in butter and vanilla. Reheat before serving and serve warm not hot.
To serve: Remove parfait from freezer for about 10 minutes before serving. Slice with a large sharp knife dipped into very hot water. Serve with the chocolate sauce.
Serves 12
Note: if you can’t buy golden syrup substitute corn/glucose syrup or honey.
My favourite fish recipes are simple ones like this. With lots of cherry tomatoes in the garden I’m putting it on the menu about once a week at the moment.
2 x 150g thick fish fillets with skin (e.g. snapper, cod, blue grenadier)
2 Tbs olive oil
125g cherry tomatoes, halved
4 spring onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
Small handful chopped fresh herbs (coriander, parsley, basil)
1 Tbs white balsamic vinegar
Pinch of sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Dry fish with paper towels then season with salt and pepper on both sides. Spread one Tbs olive oil over the base of a non-stick frying pan and lay fish fillets on top, skin side down. Turn the heat on to medium and slowly heat the pan and cook the fish until the skin is golden and crisp. Turn fish over and cook for about a minute on the other side or until just cooked. Remove from pan to a warm plate and cover with a large saucepan lid to keep warm while you make the sauce.
Add 1 Tbs oil to the pan with the spring onions and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, for a minute. Add tomatoes and cook for another minute, stirring. Finally add vinegar and cook for another minute. Tomatoes should be soft but still keep their shape. Season with the salt, pepper and sugar, stir in the herbs and divide between two warm plates. Place fish on top, skin side up. Serve with a green vegetable such as pan fried zucchinis (courgettes) as shown in the photo.
Serves 2
Note: white wine vinegar or verjuice can be used instead of white balsamic vinegar.
